AgWeb.com / Tulsa World / by Sonya Colberg
TULSA, OKLAHOMA -- Some Oklahoma farmers are joining other producers to support upgrading wheat standards after being embarrassed by a foreign grain shipment contaminated with mice, birds and other creatures. Tim Galvin, Foreign Agriculture Service administrator, headed a public meeting on grain cleaning in Washington, D.C., in January. He said in a telephone interview that he and staffers are writing the grain-cleaning report and will submit four options to Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman. One controversial option calls for about $100 million in government financing to build cleaning facilities along the Gulf of Mexico in Texas. The meeting came shortly after Jordanian inspectors said they found 58 rodents, seven toads, 13 birds, a fish and a snakeskin in an October wheat shipment from the United States.
Wheat from the region of Oklahoma and Kansas could have been in the contaminated shipment, but industry and government officials said they don't know for certain. There also has been speculation that the load was contaminated after it left U.S. shores. "Producers are very supportive of a cleaner product," said Gary Gilbert, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission. "They'd like to see the product going overseas clean." The Jordanian incident put an exclamation point on the demand for cleaner wheat.
Asian importers have been requiring higher wheat specifications, and other foreign buyers have reportedly turned to U.S. competitors, says a Department of Agriculture report. America's key export competitors, Canada and Australia, sell wheat containing average dockage (broken or extraneous material) of 0.2 percent. Exported U.S. wheat averaged 0.5 to 0.7 percent dockage, says the USDA. Galvin said the government this week took a small step toward addressing one of the options: supplying cleaner wheat in food aid. "We announced tender to purchase some additional wheat for food aid donations overseas and specified a dockage level of 0.8 percent," he said.
"So we've nudged that one a little bit." The other options include creating new export standards such as setting maximum levels of dockage, revising the Export Enhancement Program, and giving bonuses for the added costs of cleaning wheat for export. Those options won't happen immediately even if Glickman accepts them at once. Public comments probably would be needed before establishing a dockage standard, and inter-agency approval would be needed before proceeding with the export program proposal, Galvin said.
Gilbert said that while the Oklahoma Wheat Commission likes most options, it does not support having the government finance installation and upgrading of grain-cleaning systems at U.S. wheat export elevators. "We are reluctant to accept funds from the government," he said. "When you take money from the government, there are usually some stipulations involved." The Foreign Agriculture Service set preliminary cost estimates for cleaning systems at $5 million per facility. Galvin said there are about 20 facilities, bringing the total to about $100 million. The Oklahoma Grain and Feed Association also opposes government-subsidized grain-cleaning facilities, said association president Joe Neal Hampton. He said the 235 association elevator owners generally feel it is unfair for the government to pay for elevators' cleaning facilities when some elevators already have installed them privately. Among the Oklahoma grain elevators with cleaners are the Tulsa Port of Catoosa and the W.B. Johnston Elevator in Inola. "There's probably no doubt we are going to have to look at providing cleaner grain -- it's just a question of how you do it and who pays for it," Hampton said.
Hard red winter wheat is a $517 million crop in Oklahoma, earning the state the No. 2 spot in the nation behind Kansas. The Kansas Wheat Commission has been pushing for clean grain initiatives for 10 years, long before the Jordanian incident, said commission spokeswoman Marsha Boswell. "I think anytime food aid is sent to another country as a good-will gesture and it turns out not to be our best wheat, it does make us look a little bad," she said. "We want to do anything and everything we can to make that wheat the best quality." A commission consultant and Kansas State University professor emeritus, Charles Deyoe, will make a "good faith" trip to Houston in April when more wheat is loaded for Jordan, she said. Boswell said the Kansas commission supports all four options, including having the government help pay for grain-cleaning facilities. Gilbert said the measures should help create a stronger market and only add a cost of 2.5 to 3 cents per bushel.
"They make 72 loaves of bread from a bushel of wheat," he said. "It should be negligible to the price of a loaf.":
